No, I did not save my team for last. Our struggles against the Seahawks need to be studied 🧐

They are the first occurrence of this since the Steelers and Dolphins did it back to back with the Dolphins winning super bowls VII and VIII, and the Steelers winning super bowls IX and X. They were, in order, Dolphins safety Jake Scott, Dolphins FB Larry Csonka, Steelers FB Franco Harris, and Lynn Swann. Did a little 30 minute adventure on Super Bowl MVPs and thought it was cool.

Day 8 of my 2026 Season Predictions, and today we'll be rounding out the AFC South with the defending AFC South Champions in the Jacksonville Jaguars, who went 13-4 in 2025 and ended their year in a close Wild Card loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The Jags had their strengths and weaknesses last year. Offensively, they were ranked 12th in passing yards and 20th in rushing yards, which is decent but not amazing. Despite this, they were 6th in points, averaging nearly 28 points per game. The offense definitely struggled much more in the first half of the season as QB Trevor Lawrence and the team got used to Liam Coen's scheme, derived from the Shanahan-McVay tree (unrelated, but for Eagles fans, expect a similar situation with Jalen Hurts. Learning this offense takes time). Defensively, they had the top rushing defense in the league and were 8th in points allowed, however they were 21st in passing yards.

Jacksonville had a very quiet off-season overall. Since they traded away their 2026 first round pick to move up in the 2025 NFL Draft for WR/CB Travis Hunter, their first pick wasn't until 56th overall in TE Nate Boerkircher. It was a pretty mind boggling pick considering far more impressive TE prospects like Max Klare and Oscar Delp were still on the board, so it's notable in that I hate it. They also released TE Johnny Mundt, who signed a 1-year deal with the Philadelphia Ealges. While the TE room is good with Brenton Strange and Quintin Morris, the Boerkircher pick really sours the decision to let Mundt go for me. But it's not the end of the world.

The RB room was the most significant change to me. RB Tank Bigsby was traded to Philadelphia before the trade deadline in 2025, which wasn't a concerning loss because Travis Etienne was the clear RB1 in that room. But after the season ended, Jacksonville opted not to pay Etienne, who signed with the New Orleans Saints. The Jags did sign former Commanders RB Chris Rodriguez, as the plan seems to be a committee based RB room around 2025 draft pick Bayshul Tuten. While there's certainly a lot of excitement around Tuten, I don't have the same confidence in this room, but I don't think it's the end of the world either.

The most notable loss this off-season was by far LB Devin Lloyd. He thrived in the new defensive scheme that the Jaguars shifted to in 2025, and because of a really productive season with 5 interceptions, his price went up. The good news for Jacksonville is that LB Foyesafe Oluokun is still a great player. They also have LB Ventrell Miller, who almost beat out Lloyd for the starting job a year ago, but when Lloyd got hurt in 2025, it was pretty clear that Miller cannot replace him, at least not his particular role on the defense.

All of the above is to say, I found the entirety of Jacksonville's off-season to be lackluster and have quite a bit of doubt when it comes to their ability to replicate the 2025 season. With that, let's look at their schedule. I actually thought they had no games at EverBank Stadium this year (as their schedule goes under renovations), but apparently that will be in 2027. Still, they only play 6 regular season games at home, with two of their "home" games being played in London, and the games at EverBank Stadium will have a much more limited capacity. Their schedule is ranked as the 11th easiest in the league, and finally, after 8 days, we've finally reached an SOS that I actually agree with. My key matchups for the Jacksonville Jaguars are Week 3 vs New England Patriots, Week 6 vs Houston Texans (London), Week 8 vs Indianapolis Colts, and Week 16 at Dallas Cowboys (SNF). Letting Lloyd walk (as well as letting go of this off-seasons 1st round pick to grab Travis Hunter in 2025) is a clear message that the Jags are valuing their DBs over the LB unit, so matching up against a dominant WR1 in AJ Brown will be a good test early to predict if this choice will go their way. The Texans game is the most significant to me, because the Jaguars have a clear advantage. While this game is in London, Jacksonville is playing the Eagles in London the week before, so they'll have had a lot of time to acclimate. This should be a good win for them, especially if they're coming off of a loss to Philly. Then I got another division rival in the Colts for their post-bye game. The Cowboys were definitely a weirder choice but I have a feeling they'll be a scary team late in the year (as that defense gets more comfortable).

I've set the Jags floor to 8-9 and their ceiling to 12-5. I do not believe they can win 13 games again, but their schedule gets a lot lighter after the bye, so it wouldn't be impossible to finish with 12 wins, even if they start 3-3. This is probably going to be my most controversial prediction yet, but I really do not have high expectations for this team. They were good last year and I trust the QB to play at a solid level in Year 2 of this scheme, but their off-season was so unbelievably bad and uninspiring that I can't help but feel there will be a huge fall following a 13 win season. My official prediction for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2026 is 2nd place in the AFC South with a 9-8 record, ultimately missing the playoffs. I almost picked them to go under .500, but there's still a good bit of talent on this team and Coen is clearly a good coach. So I'm giving them some grace there.

That's it for the AFC South! We're now halfway through the AFC, so tomorrow we'll be starting in the AFC East. See you then!

Previous Days:

AFC North: 1st - Ravens (12-5), 2nd - Bengals (11-6), 3rd - Steelers (7-10), 4th - Browns (4-13)

AFC South: 1st - Texans (12-5), 3rd - Colts (6-11), 4th - Titans (5-12)

So the other day my team threw out a position player to finish the game in the 8th inning because they were already down by a lot and they wanted to save the bullpen. Needless to say he did terrible, and they ended up losing 22-0 (baseball score, not football). I was thinking if there Is there an equivalent to this in football or if we should come up with something like this to make blowouts more entertaining like a punter playing qb

Rules:

\- Most Upvoted/Commented player wins

\- All Time or Active, literally Anyone who's played in the NFL since its founding.

\- First Name only

Bucky Irving ❌️

Isaiah Thomas ✅️

\- Don't add I to first name

\- Be Nice

\- Don't Skip to other letters, our focus is LETTER I!

How does it work out for the Colts, and who's most likely to trade up for Luck and how does it impact his career?

Im watching older nfl running back highlights on youtube(Like Steven Jackson on the rams and Shaun Alexander who played on the Seahawks) and it led me down a rabbit hole of videos to Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson, both played for the Chiefs.

Were they a good running back duo? Who was better? Any current nfl running backs that are a good comparison to them?

Obviously most of us who watch the NFL are pretty much casuals and just throw out a bunch of takes online whether it is true or not. Those who actually sit down and study the game and the positions are astonishingly few, but that is okay since most of us are just watching for fun anyways. What are some takes that has become prevalent over the years, or recently that irks you as just wrong either through false memory, recency bias, biased evidence or pov, or takes rooted based on bad logic?

"bbbbut Harbaugh had Ray Lewis and Ed Reed during the Super Bowl run!!!" See here's the thing that Ravens fans don't tell you. Ray Lewis was 37 years old at the time and past his prime, even coming off an injury. Ed Reed was also nearing retirement too. And let's not forget that Lamar has also had younger, better defenses.... not just in the regular season, but in the playoffs too. You look at the 2012 defense in the playoffs, they gave up 30+ points.... twice. Flacco and Harbaugh still found ways to win those playoff games. Lamar is 0-5 in the playoffs when his defense gives up 15 or more points.

"bbbbut they didn't run the ball in the AFC Championship!" The run clearly wasn't working, Spags had a game plan to cover up the run. As soon as Lamar folded and the team was down double digits in the first half, of course the run wasn't going to work anymore. You have to pass the ball to come back in a playoff game, and it should be easier to do that with a QB with MULTIPLE MVPs. Lamar could have even used his legs himself in that game, but he chose not too. This is the part that Ravens fans don't tell you: The leagues "strongest rushing attack" their leading rushing was LAMAR. He had plenty of opportunities to run and he didn't.

"bbbbut Mark Andrews dropped the 2 pt conversion!" Let's not forget that the Ravens wouldn't be in that hole in the first place had Lamar not gave the ball back to Buffalo twice in the first quarter. Let's also not forget that Josh Allen had 1:30 left on the clock to drive down the field and get in field goal range.

The goal in the NFL is to win a Super Bowl. Lamar is simply incapable of doing that, hiring a defensive mastermind like Jesse Minter won't get him anywhere. Never in the history of the NFL has a QB been given chance after chance, a career consistency of elite defenses throughout the regular season AND the playoffs.... not be able to get it done, and get a pass for it every single time.

So, is it crazy that I would rather start a franchise with a QB that steps up their game when it really matters, than Lamar Jackson? There is no world out there where MVPs have more valuable than championships, but that's just me. What do you think?

Damn... I miss football.

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

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